This journal entry is contributed by my close friend Jason Punko. It is an honor for me and my journal to be considered a medium for sharing something so worthy of. Jason has been a great voice in trying to create an awareness through his entry below. I created a new category ‘Specials’ that will handle any future posts from my guests. Here is the entry:

On April 1, 2008 the House of Representatives unanimously adopted H. Res. 1005 declaring May to officially be Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) awareness month. BPD is a very serious mental illness that affects approximately 1 out of every 50 people, most commonly women, which equates to about 4 million adults and adolescents, this makes it as common as Bi-Polar Disorder and Schizophrenia. BPD is characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior.

It has an extremely high suicide rate, a rate that is 400 times greater than the general public, this rate is even higher among women with BPD reaching as high as 800 time greater. This amounts to 10% of borderlines taking their own life. Some of the symptoms of BPD include, but not limited to the following:

Suicidal Behavior and/or attempts

Splitting (seeing people and things as either all good or all bad at any one time. Borderlines are unable to integrate the two sides.)

Intense fears of abandonment

Self- Injury (without the intent to commit suicide – This can manifest itself both physically harmful ways (i.e. Cutting) or in such ways as substance abuse and impulsive behaviors.

Intense mood swings that last normally a few hours and rarely more than a day. I hate you, Don’t Leave Me, is a book about BPD whose title alone shows what these mood swings can be like. A borderline can literally be telling you they hate you one minute and the next be begging you not to leave them.

Unstable Self-Image

Chaotic Relationships

These are just a few of the symptoms of the condition. Borderlines are also known to be very emotionally abusive and can also be known to be physically abusive as well, to the point of killing people. At a conference on BPD in October of last year BPD the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, NEA-BPD, gave a posthumous award to one of the doctors who treated borderlines that lost his life during a session with a patient. His patient had an episode and killed the doctor in the office. Another example given was one doctor was 3 minutes late for an appointment and his patient stormed out of the office irate because they felt the doctor had abandoned them and didn’t care about them or helping them.

As you can see this is a very serious illness that is misunderstood and not as well known as Bi-Polar Disorder and Schizophrenia. Not only is it misunderstood sadly, BPD is at least 20 years behind in research compared to other disorders such as Bi-Polar Disorder. This is due is in part due to the fact that it is a relatively newly recognized official diagnosis. Research into this terrible mental illness is also seriously under funded.

BPD not only affects the borderline but also the borderlines’ family and friends. BPD can and often does put a terrible strain on families, especially if the borderline has not been diagnosed. While there are support groups for families of borderlines, there is still nowhere enough.

While the picture may be horrifying and grim there is hope and hope comes from awareness.